The two minors, whose names have not been released, and 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben David were subsequently charged with Abu Khdair’s murder.
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Hussein Abu Khdeir, Muhammad’s father, who attended the hearings, has often said that he expected Ben-David would mount an insanity defense and that he feared Ben-David and his young relatives would be treated with leniency.
Two Palestinians suspected of the murder of the three Israeli teenagers – Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both aged 16, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach – were killed by Israeli forces in a gun-battle at their hideout in Hebron in September 2014.
The killings were part of an escalating cycle of violence, culminating in a war between Israel and militants in Gaza.
The developments could also further increase Israeli-Palestinian tensions amid a two-month wave of violence that has convulsed the region.
Prosecutors say they confessed to the killing to avenge the slaying of three Jewish teens.
Early Sunday morning, a Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli border police officer at Damascus Gate, a main entry point for Palestinians to east Jerusalem’s Old City.
Two attempted stabbings by Palestinians near Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday left one attacker shot dead and the other wounded, the Israeli military and police said.
“If they were Arabs, their homes would have been demolished immediately”, said the elder Abu Khdeir, a member of a prominent Palestinian family with branches that reach to the United States.
Ben David was previously videotaped confessing to the murder, explaining how it had been planned and in retaliation for the murder of three Israeli teenagers.
Once Abu Khdeir was abducted, the three Israelis beat him with a crow bar and poured gasoline down his throat.
Abu Khdair’s body was discovered on 2 July 2014, following what was believed to be a revenge attack after the murder of three Israeli teenagers.
The two Israeli minors, who have not been named, were found guilty of abducting, beating and then burning to death Mohammed Abu Khdeir in July 2014.
In a move seen by many as a way to tone down violence over the past few months in exchange for “economic peace”, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel have signed a protocol of agreement to enable Palestinians to access 3G service, third-generation high-speed internet access technology.
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The court however, delayed any issuing of a verdict for his case after Ben-David’s lawyers submitted a psychiatric evaluation at the last minute that raised certain doubt to his responsibility for his own actions when the crime was committed, which added to Palestinians being furious. “I think they will say that they were insane and give them a year or two, that’s all”. “I hoped they all would get a punishment”, said the mother of the victim, Suha Abu Khdeir, 45, from her living room hours after the trial ended. The U.S. State Department said it was “disappointed” with that sentence.
